Wednesday, 30 June 2010

This another update to explain our summer 2010 activities. At BRII we are working on a reporting system where users can notify us and official sources of data about errors they find in Research Activity Data. This system will help us and our sources to improve the quality of data. As we are harvesting data from other sources we are designing a system were users can flag errors and send notifications to the appropriate people (sources and BRII) These notifications will contain enough information to decide on a suitable action to take.

Errors could originate from the content of data themselves or from the process of aggregation we perform at BRII. Say for example, misspellings and wrong information in source data, information which have been aggregated but which belong to different people with the same names, information belonging to the same person but which appears as belonging to two or more people with the same name, etc.

In relation to aggregation errors, Anusha has been working hard to design a system to accurately identify sets of data which belong to the same person. For example Prof John Smith in source 1 and J. P. Smith in source 2 could be the same person, or could not. For this she is using extra information that comes with data such as affiliation etc. When her algorithm is finished we will be able to merge two or more "people" into one or divide one "person" into two or more "people" as requested by administrators or users who identify inaccuracies.

For the summer task we are collaborating with the Computing Laboratory Comlab. Anusha is currently harvesting their data and Monica is working on the reporting/notification forms within the Blue Pages. We will soon contact Comlab again to check their harvested data and participate in tests. We would like to thank Thorsten Hauler, research facilitator, and Edward Crichton, web manager, from Comlab who have kindly given us their time.

This summer project is part of the data quality control that we are trying to establish within the registry. I have talked about this in a previous post.
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About this Blog

Cecilia Loureiro-Koechlin

I am the BRII Project Analyst and responsible for this blog. I work at the Systems and e-Research Service at the Bodleian Libraries - Oxford University. E Cecilia.Loureiro-Koechlin@bodleian.ox.ac.uk, T +44 (0) 1865 280028, Contact address: Osney One, Osney Mead, Oxford, OX2 0EW

Project Website

Our Goal

Building the Research Information Infrastructure (BRII) aims to support the efficient sharing of Research Activity Data (RAD) captured from a wide range of sources. BRII develops an infrastructure that harvests and archives RAD, and Web services which disseminate and reuse this kind of data by using a lightweight solution based on semantic web technologies. Phases of the project include: a stakeholder analysis to collect views from interested parties (e.g., academics and administrators); an iterative development process which uses information collected in the analysis phase; and an embedding and sustainability phase where user acceptance is assessed and strategies to support the expansion of the information research infrastructure are designed. Additional outputs of the BRII include: an application programming interface (API) for harvesting and querying data; a collection of ontologies and taxonomies used to organise and classify data; a themed Web site; and the Oxford Blue Pages displaying RAD in creative ways. By facilitating access to RAD, BRII expects to improve the research visibility of the institution and its research impact, as well as boost collaboration.

Rumsey, S. (2010) BRII registry & other outputs A description of the pilot Research Activity Data Registry functionality, services and other outputs that will be developed by the project end (March 2010) and suggestions for further work.

Adding a researcher profile. Video clip demonstrating how to search for a researcher profile in the ORA registry and then embed this in a content managed website.

Loureiro-Koechlin C. (2009) Selling an abstract concept to a practical audience (presented at the Modular e-Administration of Teaching (MEAoT) Assembly, Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies (CARET), University of Cambridge, 10 December 2009.)